WIDENING THE LONDON-DOVER ROAD.
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A Most Useful Relief Work which will Prove of Inestimable Benefit to Transport.
. AN opportunity 'was. provided last week for members of the 'Press and important municipal officials to inspect the widening works on the London-Dover road, which is one of -the nmst ima portant of the large relief schemes inaugurated by
the Ministry of Transport. , The seven-mile section of this famous old road, between Farningham and Wrotham, which is being' carried out under contract by Roads and zPublic Works, Ltd., of Westminster, S.W., is of outstanding interest, on ecount of the widely varying character of the terrain,.
The work involves cutting through and setting back high chalk cliffs ; the bitilding of high embankments ; the filling in of connecting slopes, ravines, and ditches for levelling up ; widening the existing road to BO ft. ; the by-passing of Wrotham Village, with its narrow, tortuous, main street; the provision of a concretekerbed carriageway 30 ft. wide ; and, finally; flattening the surface and covering it with an asphaltic material.
• The road, when finished, or, rather, the section of it under consideration, will provide a straight, level, and dustless highway, with ample room on each side of the 30-ft. asphalted portion for further widening, should such increase of width become desirable.
As evidence of the amount of work that has had to be done, the excavation has totalled to 150,000 cubic yards, and as chalk in lumps weighs about 2,400 lb. per cubic yard, it is obvious that over 150,000 tons of soil and chalk have been removed. In the Making up of the road there have also been used 5,000 tons of clinker, 25,000 tons of hard core, and 20,000 tons of local flint. The road formation is 19 ins. deep (consolidated), and consists of 3 ins, of clinker, 9 ins. of hard core, 4 ins, of boulder flints and 3 ins, of surface flints. This surface is being dressed with a mixture of bitunien and tar, and, when it has become thoroughly consolidated by the traffic, it is proposed to coat the• 30-ft. carriageway with the asphalt surface.
Over 1,100 Men, recruited, from the London (Tavia stock Street) Labour Exchange, have been employed on the work, working nine hours a day, except Saturday. The, men are brought _down from London to Farningham Road Station by special trains,, and con-. veyed to their posts all along the. line by a fleet of motor lorries. The work is closed down on Friday by the Ministry of Transport to reduce the transport charge' and in this way economy is effected. All the sectioning work of the new road, for which over 400 separate drawings had to be prepared, was carried out byrthe company. The work is being carried out under the direction of Mr. W. D. Harding, chief engineer of Roads and. Public Works, Ltd.; and the chief resident agent is Mr. W. 11. Wal4en. _The Ministry of 'Trarisport's resident engineer is Major K. -N. 2,1unro, RE.
The now road crosses. •theold Pilgi'im Way at Wrotham Village, which is by-passed almost. in a direct line from the top of Wrotham Hill, where a wide embankment of about 50 ft. in height•has been built from theematerial taken away from the chalk cliffs to join the diversion.
Roads and Public Works, Ltd., are also widening for the Ministry of Transport a long section of the road between Dartford and Northfleet, and they have devised special arrangements for placing their trained staff and engineering resources and guidance at the service of councils when they are faced with the problem of having to carry out relief works for the unemployed " at short notice.